Biography
Dr. Chip W. Ferguson is a Full Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering,
College of Engineering, at Ðǿմ«Ã½. In other roles, he served as the Associate Dean of
the College of Engineering and Technology (CET) for well over a decade as well as
program director, department head, school director, and interim dean for another decade.
He has received numerous awards including Ðǿմ«Ã½â€™s Innovative Scholarship Award; The
Chancellor’s Meritorious Award for Engaged Teaching; CET’s Board of Governor’s Faculty
Teaching Award; CET’s George Reeser Outstanding Faculty Award (1 of 4 in 25 years);
CET’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring and Advising; and the MARC Industries Inc.
Association for Rehabilitation Centers Directors Award. He has led (PI) or co-led
(Co-PI, collaborator) multiple grant projects totaling over 4.5 million in external
funding from the National Science Foundation, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL);
Department of Energy, Nuclear Regulatory Commission; Air Force Office of Scientific
Research, and the Golden LEAF Foundation. In 2012, he was named a Research Faculty
Affiliate at the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute. Dr. Ferguson also led multiple
externally funded engineering design projects involving students who developed new
products for the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, U.S. Army Research Office,
ORNL, UF Shands Cancer Hospital, MARC, and several companies, where two of the design
projects resulted in U.S. patent applications. He has published more than forty articles
in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings, and in 2022 he and three co-authors
were awarded the Journal of Engineering Technology’s Best Paper Award. Dr. Ferguson’s
past industry experience involved the design and development of hydrostatic drives
and automated fluid power systems.
Teaching Interests
Engineering design graphics, 3D constraint-based computer modeling, engineering fundamentals,
engineering statics, strengths of materials, fluid power, and new product design and
development.
Research Interests
Applied research areas include product design and development, SoTL research areas
include STEM education, undergraduate research, Project Based Learning, and Spatial
visualization skills development